BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan urged the City Social Welfare and Development Office to submit a detailed report on how the P2 million that was generated from the conduct of a month-long trade fair along Juan Luna Drive was utilized for the local government initiatives geared towards the promotion of the welfare of the over seven hundred persons with substance use disorder (PSUDs).
The local chief executive said local officials were criticized for having allowed the extension of the Panagbenga trade fair for another month just to raise the P2 million proposed by the CSWDO to bankroll the unfunded programs and interventions for the increasing number of PSUDs in the city that is why it is important for the submission of the report on how the funds were used for transparency purposes.
“We have to make sure that we will be able to provide our constituents a clear picture on how the trade fair funds were used for the benefit of our PSUDs so that we will not be criticized for raising funds that were not properly used. We hope that the report will be available the soonest so that we will make the report to our people for transparency purposes,” Domogan stressed.
In her report during the regular Monday flag raising ceremony at the city hall grounds, City Social Welfare and Development officer Betty Fangasan reported that there were some 785 PSUDs from various barangays who have undertaken the community-based rehabilitation and inter-agency participatory rehabilitation since the implementation of the government’s anti-drug campaign.
Of the said number of PSUDs, 368 have reportedly completed the community-based rehabilitation while 128 are undergoing the completion of the inter-agency participatory rehabilitation being initiated by concerned government agencies, private sector partners and faith-based groups.
Fangasan said her office continues to partner with various government and private sector groups to continue providing the required rehabilitation to the city’s drug surrenderees, especially those who were not able to undergo the needed rehabilitation so that they will be able to be brought back to mainstream society.
It can be recalled that the local legislative body allowed the extension of the Panagbenga market encounter along Jose Abad Santos Drive for another month along Juan Luna Drive primarily to generate some P2 million which will be used by the CSWDO for the implementation of programs and interventions beneficial to the PSUDs.
The organizers of the trade fair were required to deposit the P2 million in advance to the account of the CSWDO to guarantee that the funds will be available for the prescribed purpose when needed by the office even if the trade fair was not yet over.
Domogan underscored that it is important for the local government to satisfy the people by providing them with the details on how the funds were used for the benefit of the PSUDs to whom the funds are due and to avoid the suspicion that the same was utilized for other purposes aside from what had been proposed in the local legislative body.
By Dexter A. See
